


A Song of the Milky Way

by violettispaghetti



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Good for them, Guilt, Love Boat - Freeform, M/M, cheesily looking at the sky together, in retrospect... are we sure that's not the real kuwei, jesper is dumb but we been knowing and we love him anyways, soft, those bitches gay, unspoken feelings, well-intentioned misunderstandings, yes cause I say so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21972628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violettispaghetti/pseuds/violettispaghetti
Summary: Just a little peek at the days on the Ferolind after the heist into the Ice Court.Wylan has a different face, now... but Jesper doesn't know.
Relationships: Jesper Fahey/Wylan Van Eck, Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	A Song of the Milky Way

**Author's Note:**

> The fun fact about this one-shot is that I wrote it before I'd even started to read Crooked Kingdom, so I was taking really lightly the whole issue "kuwei-has-a-crush-on-jesper". A little bit too lightly. I regretted it very soon, but that's another story.  
> As you can probably notice, English is not my first language, so please be kind.  
> Have a good read! And happy holidays to you all.

  


_Day 1 ~~on this fucking boat~~ on the Ferolind_  
_Five hours since we sailed off from Djerholm. Already hating everything up here. I thought I was missing this boat, yet I despise it more than ever. Right now I’d rather have a cup of coffee with all the drüskelle in the world than being here, unable to go wherever I want. I miss dry land. ~~I miss~~ _  
  
Jesper crumpled the paper and threw it into the rough waters, beyond the bulwark. So lame. What was he thinking when he decided to write a journal? He was no poet. He barely managed to stand still for more than two minutes, how could he expect to keep his frantic mind focused on a task like that? He sighed and looked around. Nobody in sight except for Specht and Rotty, who were chatting quietly on bow, probably about some nautical shit. Jesper sighed again, visibly unsettled. His hands were feeling itchy, so he started to pace around on the ship deck to find something to handle or someone to bother. Possibly the merchling.   
He shook off that thought. Wylan was probably below deck, busy keeping alive Nina after she had taken jurda parem.   
“So”, he said quietly, a sad smile on his lips. “You tricked yourself with your own hands, pal.”  
Jesper stopped walking to look at the day dawning above the brigantine. After all, he was still alive.  
  
_Day 3 on the Ferolind_  
_I started to keep count of all the time Rotty picks his nose while he thinks nobody’s watching him. Gave up at 23. It’s crazy how time flies when you’re having fun._  
  
On the third day, it became clear that Wylan wouldn’t have left the surgeon’s cabin. It was a real shame, thought Jesper, but tried to keep himself busy. He talked to Kaz, but turned out it wasn’t a great idea. Brekker was more vexed than the usual and Jesper gave up after he threatened him to shut him in a barrel and leave him there until the end of the journey… probably. Jesper didn’t dare to analyse his intents. On the other hand, Inej, who had always been a good company to him, had suddenly become interested in knots, sails, all types of vessels, and spent all the time on deck following Specht. But that didn’t actually bother Jesper: he could tell that there was a new spark in Inej’s eyes, a spark that lit up every time she was rigging a sail or tying a knot. That spark was something that Kaz had surely noticed, since he turned particularly gloomy anytime he looked at Inej. Jesper had no intention to get mixed up in such things, especially when it came to Kaz Brekker, but it was better than doing nothing. Better than worrying about Nina, better than blaming himself.  
  
_Day 4 on the Ferolind_  
_How do I intend to spend all my four million kruge? That’s a good question, Sir, thank you. First of all, I’ll repay all my debts, of course. Second of all, I’ll become the most well-respected man in Ketterdam. Of all Kerch, actually. After the merchling, probably. And, who knows, perhaps I’ll buy a farm. A new farm for me and my dad._  
_~~I just~~_  
_~~I just want to understand~~_  
  
Jesper crumpled the piece of paper. He didn’t know why he kept trying: he was useless at that. He glanced up at the night sky. It looked limitless, and Jesper felt more infinitesimal than ever. The stars were winking at him, cold, beautiful and silent. He was so lost into that vision, he nearly startled when he heard someone approaching him. Jesper turned around, his muscles all tensed up, ready to grab his prized (and, sadly, absent) revolvers… just to see Kuwei Yul-Bo looking at him, wide-eyed.  
“Oh, it’s you”, Jesper laughed. “You’re lucky I don’t have my pistols with me.”  
He mimed a firing gun and Kuwei pretended to protect his head, a bright smile on his face.   
“You couldn’t sleep?”  
The Shu boy shook his head and moved towards the parapet, looking upwards and not saying a word. Jesper hesitated for a moment, a little bit puzzled, and followed him.  
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”, he asked, and he really meant that. “When I was a little boy I used to know all the names of the constellations. Now I can’t remember most of them, but I’ve never really got tired of looking up. Every time they seem to tell me-”  
“Something different”, Kuwei murmured, in a voice so low that Jesper could barely hear it.  
“Exactly!”, Jesper said, enthusiastically. “Look at the Milky Way. If you listen very carefully, you might hear it singing.”  
Kuwei shot him an oblique glance and raised an eyebrow, skeptical.  
“Alright, alright. I was just messing with you.” Jesper burst out laughing and then remembered, all at once, that that was Kuwei and he had never talked to Kuwei before. He tried to shut his mouth, in vain. “Have you seen Wylan, by any chance?”  
Kuwei turned to him quickly, as if he wasn’t expecting that question, and Jesper, used to say anything to anyone at anytime with no embarrassment whatsoever, felt his ears burning up. He tried to fix it up but got more confused.  
“You know, Van Eck’s son. The merchant. Not very tall. Interesting red hair. Passable at demo. Actually, quite good at demo. We have to thank him if we made it out of the Ice Court alive, but don’t tell him I told you this. Although I don’t think you would tell anybody, so…”  
Jesper finally looked away from his hands and realised that Kuwei had moved from his position; now he was leaning back against the mast, making him nod to continue.   
Jesper sniggered. “Glad to see that my chat didn’t put you to sleep. You don’t want to go back below deck?”  
The Shu boy shook his head for the second time.  
“As you wish”, Jesper said. And the two of them stood there, silent, looking at the sea and at the sky becoming clearer and clearer, until they both fell into their own world of dreams.  
  
_Day 6 on the Ferolind_  
_Big waves, today. Kaz was out of his mind: I bet he was thinking about the kruge he’ll lose if he dies now. Inej got total control of the situation and I think that was the thing that bothered Brekker the most. I could almost hear Helvar throwing up under deck, but I didn’t dare to go check. I’m afraid I’d be kicked out, especially by Wylan. ~~I wonder if he~~ _  
_Full dark, no stars, tonight. I bet Kuwei isn’t happy about that. The guy seems pretty passionate about astronomy._  
  
_Day 7 on the Ferolind_  
_Last night on this demonic ship. I miss my revolvers more than ever. Besides, I’m starting to wonder if Kuwei is in love with me, since he keeps-_  
  
Jesper hid the paper behind his back when he heard Kuwei coming upstairs, like every night since the fourth night on the brigantine. Jesper couldn’t complain about it: he asked for company, and here it was. Kuwei was a very unexpected company, it was true, and it was not easy to understand him, but at least Jesper didn’t have to spend the night alone on deck, metaphorically tossing and turning until morning. The closer they got to Kerch, the more he felt restless. A lot of thoughts were swirling around in his head: he could live with some of them, but most of them were just unbearable. So yes, he was happy to have Kuwei with him.   
“Well, hello there!”, he uttered, far more cheerfully than he actually felt.  
Kuwei nodded hello and came up beside him on larboard. He looked tired and distressed, with dark circles under his eyes. “How’s Nina?”, Jesper asked mechanically, already knowing the answer. Like he wasn’t asking the same question to Kaz with a frequency of four times during the same day.   
Kuwei shrugged.   
“Whoa, whoa! Too much information!”, Jesper raised his hands, a grin on his face. “Slow down or I’ll be overwhelmed!”  
But Kuwei didn’t laugh. He didn’t even give him a thin smile. He just stood still with his eyes on the black waters, and all of a sudden Jesper realised that expression mirrored the way he felt on the inside. His heart sank a little.  
“Listen. I know how you must feel, really. For what it’s worth, I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry about your father.”  
“How…”, Kuwei began, but immediately fell silent. “Oh. Thank you.”  
Jesper noticed that he was holding tightly to the railing, not looking at him. Of course. That must be a delicate matter for Kuwei, and he had brought it up like a total prick. Jesper kicked himself mentally.  
“I’m sorry if I bothered you. I’m not very good with words.”  
Kuwei shook his head and the tiniest smirk appeared on his face. “Not true.”  
Jesper smiled back to him but said nothing. An odd silence fell between them.   
Jesper had been knowing Kaz Brekker for a time, so he wasn’t unfamiliar with that insanely quiet attitude. Actually, he was so good at rambling that he didn’t care about that. But he could tell that was a different kind of silence: it was full of things unsaid, things that were awaiting to be told and he couldn’t really say how, since he didn’t even know Kuwei so well. Maybe he was turning crazy. It was possible. That boat…  
‘The North Star is very bright tonight’, that was Jesper’s first thought when his fingers brushed against the other boy’s fingers. It was a fast, light touch, yet it talked of all the things unspoken into that silence. They both moved their hands away.  
“I can hear it”, Kuwei whispered after a while.  
“What?”, Jesper replied, but there was no need to tell.   
Then Kuwei turned his back on him and walked away. Jesper could hear the cabin door slamming but did not look. He stood there in disbelief, long after the North Star was gone; until he finally got to witness the seventh dawn of his new life as a survivor, wondering if he’d ever have the chance to meet Wylan again, just to tell him about the song of the Milky Way.  


  



End file.
